Month: June 2013
Someone Finally Puts Issa’s Past in Play
And if I were Republicans, I would say to Issa, in the parlance of his old business, “Please step away from that car.”
— David Axelrod, Democratic strategist, asserting that Republicans are approaching overreach concerning the IRS. Axelrod was alluding to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who, prior to being in Congress, was charged with grand theft auto, investigated for arson, arrested on weapons charges, and convicted of carrying an unregistered and concealed firearm.
Former Justice O’Connor Rails Against Elected Judges
I think there are many who think of judges as politicians in robes. In many states, that’s what they are … They seem to think judges should be a reflex of the popular will.
— Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, making “a plea for preserving the impartiality and independence of the American judicial system,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Panetta to Pen Memoir
$3 million
Amount of deal Leon Panetta, the former defense secretary and director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has struck to write a memoir, the New York Times reports. Said Panetta: “I have seen Washington at its best and at its worst. My goal is to give readers the opportunity to go behind the scenes and learn the lessons of how our democracy works, and sometimes how it fails to work.”
Romney’s Transition Plan a Monument to Wasted Work
138 pages
Length of Mitt Romney’s transition organization’s report detailing how it had prepared for a potential Romney victory in the 2012 presidential election, Time reports. “It is the product of a team of nearly 500, who labored in Washington and around the country to be ready to help Romney assume the reins of power on January 20th, 2013, in accordance with the Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010.”
Mass. Dems Trying Not to ‘Screw Up’ Special Election
To screw up a U.S. Senate special election isn’t a theory for us. We’ve done it, so nobody is taking anything for granted.
— Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman John Walsh, quoted by the Boston Globe.
Town Where Once a Man Was Killed for Being Gay Now Shields Its Residents from Westboro Baptist Hate
Somewhere, Ryan Skipper is smiling.
No, Ryan Skipper is laughing, high-fiving, and doing the chicken dance. Or maybe that’s just us, upon hearing the recent state of affairs in Lakeland, Fla.
One person who might not have gotten the anti-homophobia message is Sheriff Grady Judd
The same place where, in 2007, 25-year-old Ryan Skipper was bound and brutally stabbed, leaving his car so bloodied that the his murderers, who planned to steal it, drove it off a dock instead — all because, as they told investigators, Ryan was gay — the very same Lakeland citizenry has now massed together to fight off the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its nonsensical hate-mongering against homosexuals.
The Most Important Issue in America Today Is Not What They Tell You It Is
Forget the nonexistent “crisis” surrounding budget deficits and — as you’ll hear again soon — raising the debt ceiling. Let’s talk about what’s really threatening to end America as we know it, and that’s income inequality. When Congress starts unraveling the policies they have put in place to help the rich get richer, like taxing income from work at a much higher rate than income from Wall St. wheeling and dealing, then we’ll be doing something to solve the real problem. Keep your eye on the ball, folks, because they constantly try to distract us.
